𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗥𝗖 & 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗺𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 & 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿. 𝗜𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻, 𝗜 𝗮𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄!

-Tess Swiderski has Empty Nest Syndrome… Her loving husband Marvin, who is on a business trip in another city, persuades her over the phone to paint again and put her works on 'Itsy' as a way to cope. But for that, she has to make a little trip to get her old painting utensils back. It quickly becomes clear that she should have stayed at home and not let her husband persuade her.
-Kayla is an intelligent student, but her curiosity gets the better of her one night when she gives in and watches a video. Quickly she gets involved with something that is far bigger than she can handle, or can she?
-Amanda is a grieving mother, a mother who wants revenge. But first, she has to endure the waiting game before she could even have the slightest chance of getting what she wants.

Will Tess find a way out of this, more than precarious, situation? Can Kayla trust Marty Jones? Will Amanda return to a normal life, or is it too late and the hatred has already taken hold of her?

The book is divided into 3 parts, each of which has a different amount of chapters. Each part carries a woman’s name, as we have the main protagonists of the respective parts… Tess, Kayla, and Amanda.

To be honest, the topic was a bit harder to read as a woman than I thought. Once again, it made me realize how we girls/women are still too often perceived as the ‘weaker sex’ and only as objects. How something simple as a short taxi ride or a walk in the dark can end up with us still being found on the side of the road, strangled with our own panties or simply never being found again while we have to exist as a sex toy in the basement of a pervert until the end of our lives.

As for the author’s writing style, I must say that it was generally written in a simple and bold way, and easy to read. Unfortunately, there were also parts where he started every sentence with the same pronoun. And sometimes up to over 15 times in one text passage/paragraph. An annoying shortcoming that sometimes made it hard for me to continue reading.

Nevertheless, it's just a 'technical thing' and I liked the book well enough to give it 4 Stars.

𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒔𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒏𝒆𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒘𝒆𝒃. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒕!

This was such a great thriller novel, I enjoyed the idea of this book and it was executed well. The characters were everything that I was expecting and enjoyed the overall feel of them in this book. Brandon Hughes has a great writing style and was able to create interesting characters that worked with this tense atmosphere.

Thank you to Tension Books for making the ARC of 'The Red Room' by Brandon Hughes available for review on Netgalley

I once again find myself having started a book in the evening, telling myself that I'd just read for a couple of hours before moving on to something else, only to have kept reading through the night and into the morning in order to finish that book. Clearly, I'll never learn my lesson.

In this case, I can also lay some of the blame at the feet of Brandon Hughes, who wrote himself a compelling and well-paced story.

'The Red Room' follows the accidental discovery of a dark web snuff live streaming operation by college student, Kayla Sinclair. With the help of her friend Christine, and the chivalrous bartender Marty, Kayla is able to solve part of a murder mystery. Rather than bringing her closure, doing so drags her further into danger as she realises that this isn't an isolated incident, but one of many deaths that will continue to happen - unless she can stop them.

Hughes has a history in the criminal justice system, so I wasn't surprised that he was able to construct a cohesive narrative from that side of things. What I was surprised by is that he did this whilst also constructing distinct characters with organic-feeling relationships. It was nice to have what felt like genuine interactions between his characters to break up the more bleak main storyline.

My only complaints are that the final act of the story, while definitely achieving its cathartic function, does require a bit more suspension of disbelief than I was prepared for at this point in the story; and that there were also some missed opportunities to utilise already established characters at times when it would have felt appropriate to do so.

That said, these issues were relatively minor, and I felt mostly pleased by my reading experience as a whole. I would recommend giving it a go.

Rating: 4.5/5
Note: This will be a 5/5 on Goodreads.

'The Red Room' is set to be published on the 16th of April

4.5/5.

Oh. My. God. The Red Room was so good. I need to give kudos to Brandon Hughes in handling so many point of views and intertwining stories. The stories intertwined so heartbreakingly perfect. Loved Kayla and her perseverance to finding the killer. I don't want to name too many characters because I'm afraid I may spoil the story. Just know that each character was brought to life in the best and sometimes in the creepiest ways.

I thought The Red Room would be really gory considering it was about the dark web and we hear just horrible that network can be. Brandon did really well in showing that part of the story in a dark yet not overdone way. Even had me chuckling in some parts. Some parts had me holding my breath or forcing me to toss my Kindle away in the twists or certain creepy scenes. And in some parts I wanted to shed a tear or two. I think murder mysteries can sometimes brush pass a murder and not really have us think twice. From the first story, I knew my heart was going to ache for a character or two. Really enjoyed Brandon letting us get to know each character, especially those that met a really horrible demise.

Honestly this could do well as a series or a movie.

This was a roller coaster of a book! I loved it!! It grabbed me from the start and when a book does that, I know it'll be good. I thought the intensity was perfect. I was a little nervous about some of the characters from the start, but settled into getting to know them. The main character was someone to be admired. I liked how it was fast paced the entire time. Great read!!

I could not get into this book. The writing was pretty juvenile and the story line was very lacking. Things seemed to happen very fast in the book when there was big things with not a lot of time being spent on it, but instead a lot of time being spent on trivial things. Overall the concept of the book is interesting. But the writing could have been better in my opinion.

4.5

I won't lie, I didn't expect this one to be the best. From the first few chapters, I thought it was going to pretty much be torture porn throughout, but thankfully, it wasn't. It was kind of like a good girl's guide to murder but for a much more mature audience.

It could have easily been a full 5 stars, but I wasn't satisfied with how it ended.

I went into this book expecting one thing and got something completely different. This was my first approved ARC and by the description, prepared myself for something disturbing. Instead, what I got was a book that felt genuine and characters I loved.

I didn’t feel like I was left with any questions once the book ended which was great because I had a few of them!

The one area of feedback I have is at times I felt like timeline were hard to follow. This could have been a me thing but I found myself confused / lost on some jumping back and forth.

Other than than I would absolutely recommend.

I came across this one a few weeks ago and after reading the description and some of the reviews I could not stop thinking about it. So I let my curiosity get the better of me and came back and downloaded it. I could not put this book down after starting it. I loved Kayla and honestly wasn't sure where this story was going or how it would end. I felt like the author did a great job at keeping me guessing on what direction he was going to take for the ending as it could have gone a few different ways. The story is told through a few different POVs so you get a bit more insight with each one. I feel like if you are someone who enjoys being an armchair detective then this would be a book for you.

An original and modern premise drew me to this - there is something really creepy about the dark web to me and I’ve never seen another horror about the dark web.

The plot kept me on my toes and there were definitely a few twists I didn’t see coming, which again, is always appreciated.

The writing wasn’t my favourite and was a little bit basic and clunky.

Many thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a story that could be straight from the headlines. A group of college women spend a night of partying and trip across a dark web video on a laptop of a murder committed live and for sick entertainment. The group then starts down the path of determining whether the video is real with real people and try to solve the crime.

I was not sure if this was going to be a 'torture/porn' type of read, which is not my jam or a really good, dark, suspenseful read. Its definitely the latter. I found the pacing to be fast and the story a really quick read. The characters are likeable and well developed. I kept coming back to this one when I had time to read, which is always a good sign.

If you like dark, suspenseful murder mysteries, definitely pick this one up!

Thank you for this ARC!

I really wanted to like this, but I just couldn’t get into it. The whole book just lacks personality and feels like you’re reading a script. The ending was predictable and honestly quite disappointing.

The beginning was very promising. It started off with spine chilling introduction that sends goosebumps down my arm. However, as the plot unfolds and the investigative journey commences, the narrative becomes bogged down by excessive descriptions overshadowing the initial allure of mystery and suspense.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I would say this is a good thriller for the ones intrigued by the deep web, but can't stomach extreme horror. And in addition, it's very interesting that it's written by someone having experience in the criminal justice system.

Overall I thought it was a little slow, but still intriguing.

The only thing thing that made me roll my eyes a little was that there'd be a red room for someone just getting shot. You can find that on Reddit lol. No one on the deep web would be paying that fee when you can find it on the service web without even getting into trouble.

(this review has been published on my goodreads account as well)
Thanks to NetGalley I was able to read the ARC for this one and I cannot say how happy I am about it.

I'm not a big reader of mystery or thrillers or those genres but recently I've come to actually enjoy them. And this book was definitely a good hit!

I finished this book within 24 hours 🙃 Safe to say I was hooked from page 1! The whole book was fast paced, intriguing, and so easy to read and I found myself not wanting to put it down.

The aspect of the dark Web in this was amazingly done. Obviously I have no idea how the dark Web works or any of that but I found myself thinking that the way it was done in this book could be exactly it. It was terrifying go see how people connected with the dark Web might find their victims and part of me already knew some ways but reading about it kinda brings it more to reality if you know what I mean...

However, the praise for this book aside...
I really didn't like how the author portrayed some conversations. On a few pages it was written in a way that you'd expect from a play in a theater as in: said

Kayla: (insert whatever she said)
Sam: (insert whatever he said)
[you get the gist]

This way just seemed lazy and as if the author ran out of ways to make people talk?
Following that, there were a lot of instances where every single sentence in a paragraph started with the same word like "He did", "He took", "He saw" and so on which made it annoying to read on those parts and made me think that these sentences could have been slightly reworded to not all start with the same word.

But I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to other 🥰

I was intrigued by the title- thinking maybe it had something to do with The Shining, but this book wasn’t what I was expecting. I do like murder mysteries but the plot just seemed too far fetched. It kept me guessing and had twists and turns, which is why I gave it three stars. But I was ready for the book to be over. Thank you for letting me read and review this book!

I approached this with some trepidation. I thought it would be some torture porn gore-fest. It was not.

It’s actually a chilling and clever read. There’s definitely some violence, but most of it isn’t slash/dash violence without reason. You’ve also got a very plucky pair of main characters to love.

I will admit that the rather stark change in main players toward the end of the book was disconcerting. It made total sense for the story, but it was a dramatic shift of focus. I didn’t love that part.

Still, it was a very entertaining read that surprised me more than once!

• ARC via Publisher

This was just okay. It seemed overly scripted on some parts and very juvenile during others. For example, when Tess is bound to the chair in the beginning and knows she’s about to die, she has these full blown, perfectly structured sentences. Who in the world thinks that cohesively and coherently when they’re about to be murdered?
Ultimately, I lost interest when the book said “… it doesn’t take too much for forensics to solve a case” and even more when the author chose to call condensation “drink sweat”.
I still finished it though because I wanted to know what the outcome of the man in white would be, which is why I’m giving 2 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley for the read x

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review. The Red Room is a dark web thriller that is told in four parts. This novel is quite suspenseful although not necessarily very twisty. It starts with one woman going to a cabin that was once hers and getting herself and her husband killed along with another woman. From there is stems when someone accidentally happens upon the video made about the murder, putting her in the murderer’s sights. Following this book to the end, it is very scary to think about the fact that this is all very real and could actually happen.

I want to thank Netgalley and Booksgosocial for the opportunity to read this ARC. The story grabbed me from the start with an exploration into the dark web. It then morphed into more of a crime investigation thriller, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was full of suspense and had me longing for more.